DRCOG or DCSRH first?

Short answer: for most GPs and GP trainees the DRCOG is the simpler one to do first. It is one exam on a fixed date, with no trainer to find. Start with the DCSRH, formerly the DFSRH, if a CoSRH Registered Trainer can take you on now or contraception is the work you want. Checked against rcog.org.uk, cosrh.org and the CoSRH help centre on 16 October 2026.

Two different kinds of qualification

The DRCOG is the RCOG’s diploma: one computer-based exam of 120 single-best-answer questions in three hours, sat at a Pearson VUE centre. Its seven modules run from contraception and sexual health through subfertility, pregnancy and birth to urgent and non-urgent gynaecology.

The DCSRH is the diploma of the College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (CoSRH, formerly the FSRH). CoSRH says it gives you the knowledge and skills to carry out an effective contraception consultation. Your trainer signs off four assessments:

• An Independent Learning Portfolio of 23 formative activities.
• Five Summative Clinical Assessments with your trainer, testing real consultation skills.
• The Online Theory Assessment: 50 single-best-answer questions in one hour, online and open book, with a 60% pass mark.
• The Assessment Half Day: a one-hour written paper and four observed stations with role-played patients, sat once the five clinical assessments are signed off.

Who can do each

The DRCOG needs full, limited or provisional registration with the GMC or the Medical Council of Ireland.

The DCSRH is open to healthcare professionals registered in the UK or Ireland who work in primary care, community services or integrated sexual health services. CoSRH lists doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists among them. You must be able to give intramuscular and subcutaneous injections and show resuscitation and anaphylaxis training from the last two years.

The real hurdle is the trainer. You cannot apply until a CoSRH Registered Trainer has agreed to support you. CoSRH says trainers take on limited numbers and not every area has one nearby. Remote training is possible if your trainer offers it.

Cost and time

DRCOG: £578 at UK centres or £482 in the Republic of Ireland. The 2027 sittings are on Saturday 3 April and Saturday 2 October.

DCSRH: £331 to enrol at 2026 prices, including your first Online Theory Assessment attempt. Resits are £93 each. Your trainer sets their own fees for training and the clinical assessments. If your Assessment Half Day is not arranged locally, CoSRH runs virtual ones at £343. At the end you pay the Diplomate membership fee, £142 in 2026, before the diploma is awarded. CoSRH estimates the total at £473 to £1,300 or more.

You have two years from approval to finish, though most learners take around 12 months. To keep the post-nominals you stay a paying member.

Where they overlap

DRCOG Module 1 covers contraception and sexual health, including the UKMEC. That is the DCSRH’s home ground, but the DCSRH goes further: its clinical assessments test real consultation skills. The DRCOG ranges wider: six of its seven modules cover subfertility, pregnancy, birth and gynaecology.

In our view, contraception revised properly for one carries straight over to the other.

Neither one trains you to fit coils or implants

Neither qualification on its own trains you to fit coils or implants. CoSRH trains fitting separately, through its Letters of Competence: the LoC IUT for intrauterine techniques, or the LoC SDI-IR (insertion and removal) or LoC SDI-IO (insertion only) for implants. CoSRH says its qualifications are not a legal requirement to fit, but some employers ask for one. An Online Theory Assessment passed within the DCSRH in the last five years also counts towards the LoC IUT or LoC SDI.

Which to do first, by situation

• You are in an O&G post now. Sit the DRCOG during or just after it, while the ward work is fresh. The RCOG suggests taking it during an O&G placement.
• A CoSRH Registered Trainer can take you now. Start the DCSRH. Trainer places are the scarce part; the DRCOG runs twice a year.
• You want contraception work or to fit coils and implants. The DCSRH is the more direct route. Its theory assessment can also count towards the Letters of Competence.
• You want broad women’s health for a GP role. The menopause, abnormal bleeding, early pregnancy and antenatal care all sit on the DRCOG syllabus.
• The AKT is close. Neither should crowd it out. The DCSRH theory paper is short, but the portfolio and clinical assessments take steady time over months.

If you plan to do both, the order matters less than the trainer. When a CoSRH Registered Trainer can take you, take the place.

How this fits the platform

The DRCOG hub has a question bank of 850 single-best-answer questions across the seven RCOG modules, a timed mock of 120 questions in three hours and the twelve-chapter revision guide. The DCSRH hub has a question bank of 650 questions in the style of the Online Theory Assessment across 12 modules. It adds timed mock OTAs of 50 questions in 60 minutes, a ten-chapter revision guide and the Station Simulator for the Assessment Half Day. Each is £49.99 for 12 months. We do not run courses or offer clinical training, so the clinical side stays with your trainer. You can try ten DRCOG questions free or ten DCSRH questions first.

Quick answers

Core Revision is independent and not affiliated with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists or the College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare.